Japanese

Alternative forms

• 御茶

Noun

お茶 ‎(hiragana おちゃ, romaji ocha)

1. tea, usually green tea

   お茶 (ちゃ)はいかがですか。

   Ocha wa ikaga desu ka.

   How about some tea? (Would you like some tea?)

2. tea ceremony
3. snack with tea or coffee
4. the act of having tea

Usage notes

• Using お茶 is considered neutral, while the bare 茶 is markedly impolite to refer to tea. Prefix お ‎(o-) was originally honorific, is now part of the word in modern Japanese.

Verb

お茶する ‎(intransitive, hiragana おちゃする, romaji ocha suru)

1. (colloquial) go out for tea

Related terms

Usage notes

お茶 generally refers to a cup of hot green tea. In general, black tea is referred to as 紅茶 ‎(kōcha), though it can be implicitly included within the term お茶, which literally just means "tea."

The honorific お ‎(o-) in お茶 is normally written in hiragana, though you will see it from time to time in more formal or official writing as 御 (as in 御茶). Also, お茶 is one of the unusual cases of the honorific お (or 御 ‎(o-)) that can be used to refer to anyone, including the speaker. See the usage note at 御-.

茶する without the honorific お is rarely used.

References

1. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3
2. ↑ 1974, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Second Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō